What is swimming?
A: Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other
liquid.
Swimming is usually used for what?
A: Recreation, sport,
exercise, or survival.
Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust which results in directional motion.
Humans can hold their breath underwater and undertake
rudimentary locomotive swimming within what?
A: Within weeks of birth, as a survival response.
Swimming is consistently among the top public what?
A: Recreational activities.
In some countries, swimming lessons are what?
A: A compulsory part of the educational curriculum.
As a formalized sport, swimming is featured in a range
of local, national, and international competitions, including every modern
what?
A: Summer Olympics.
Swimming involves repeated motions known as” what” in
order to propel the body forward?
A: Strokes.
The front crawl, also known as freestyle, is widely
regarded as what?
A: The fastest out of four primary strokes, other strokes are practiced for
special purposes, such as for training.
There are various risks present during swimming, mainly
due to what?
A: It takes place in water.
Swimmers are at risk of incapacitation due to what?
A: Panic and exhaustion, which may cause death due to drowning.
Other dangers include getting an infection or contact
with what?
A: Hostile aquatic fauna.
To minimize these risks, most facilities employ a
lifeguard to look for what?
A: Signs of distress.
Swimmers often wear specialized swimwear, although
depending on the culture of the area, some swimmers may also swim how?
A: Nude or wear their day attire.
In addition to this, a variety of equipment can be used
to enhance the swimming experience or performance, including but not limited
to what?
A: The use of swimming goggles, floatation devices, swim fins, and snorkels.
Swimming relies on the nearly neutral what?
A: Buoyancy of the human body.
On average, the body has a relative density of 0.98
compared to water, which causes the body to what?
A: Float.
Buoyancy varies on the basis of what?
A: Body composition, lung inflation, muscle and fat content, center of
gravity and the salinity of the water.
Higher levels of body fat and saltier water both lower
the relative density of the body and increase what?
A: Its buoyancy.
Human males tend to have a lower center of gravity and
higher muscle content, therefore find it what?
A: More difficult to float or be buoyant.
As a result, swimming is “low-impact” compared to what?
A: Land activities such as running.
The density and viscosity of water also create
resistance for what?
A: Objects moving through the water.
Swimming strokes use this resistance to create
propulsion, but this same resistance also generates what?
A: Drag on the body.
Hydrodynamics is important to stroke technique for
swimming how?
A: Faster.
Swimmers who want to swim faster or exhaust less try to
reduce what?
A: The drag of the body's motion through the water.
To be more hydrodynamically effective, swimmers can
either increase the power of their strokes or what?
A: Reduce water resistance.
Power must increase by a factor of three to achieve the
same effect as what?
A: Reducing resistance.
Efficient swimming by reducing water resistance
involves what?
A: A horizontal water position, rolling the body to reduce the breadth of
the body in the water, and extending the arms as far as possible to reduce
wave resistance.
